Water Management – Pipelines & Construction – Engineering

Rio Tinto – Pilbara, Western Australia

Test Pumping With Realtime Field Data

The Yandicoogina Mine is Australia’s largest producing iron ore mine. It is located in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, about 95 kilometres north-west of Newman, and is operated by Rio Tinto. It opened in 1998 and passed 50 million tonnes per year of product on 29 December 2009.

The requirement of this project was to complete test pumping and monitoring of 30 bores, as part of long term investigations for dewatering of greenfield areas of the Yandicoogina Mine. On surface, water was transferred 1.2kms to a drainage area, with provision of dispersion matting to ensure minimal erosion of vegetation.